Speaking up for wool: 'It's a wonderful fibre'

Gisborne’s Toby Williams is a strong advocate for wool, particularly the lifting of returns for strong wool, to the point he is a supplier shareholder of Wools of New Zealand. He’s pictured with his wife Amelia and their sons Jackson (11) and Tristin (14). Picture supplied

by Sam Halstead

Toby Williams is the fifth generation of his family to farm sheep on their land near Gisborne, and he is passionate about wool and about supporting initiatives to lift returns for strong wool.

“It’s a wonderful fibre,” Mr Williams says.

He is a supplier shareholder for Wools of New Zealand and chair of Federated Farmers Meat and Wool Council.

“It’s natural, it grows off the back of an animal and it doesn’t hurt the animal to take it off,” he says.

“It’s been at the forefront of human evolution in terms of keeping us warm and it’s what this country was built on.”

He has remained steadfast in the face of challenging wool prices and continues to farm Romney sheep and Angus cattle 50/50 over 1500ha — 1300 effective — on Pihitia Station at Whangara.

“I am a big believer in wool.

“I have Romneys because they grow fabulous wool.

“The problem is the poor returns for growers,” Toby said.

“Prices are slowly improving but there is a massive cost to get the wool off compared to returns and that is causing people to look to alternatives like planting pine trees.”

Wools of New Zealand is trying to bring returns back to farmers.

“They decided to address the problem of poor returns by becoming more vertically integrated — manufacturing and marketing their own carpets and commercial wool tiles.

“To have a company like Wools of New Zealand stand up and say ‘we are not happy with where the industry is going and want to do something about it’ is great.

“I applaud it,  so I became a shareholder and I’m proud to be a shareholder.”

At the same time Mr Williams is always ready to speak up on behalf of farmers.

“It’s important to do that.

“In general, farmers aren’t good at speaking up.

“They tend to lose morale or just stop supplying wool or go elsewhere or get out of farming sheep.

“Once wool growers have gone, I don’t see them coming back and replenishing their ewes.

“We have almost 50 million fewer sheep in New Zealand than during the 1980s, so we do need to speak out when we see a need for urgent change to ensure we have that end product to supply to market.

“Wools of New Zealand is trying to do something and that is awesome.

“Of course it would be really good if we were seeing better returns to growers than we are seeing at the moment, but the strategy behind the company is good. The potential is there for them to get it going and get wool back to where it belongs.

“The range of carpets and other products Wools of New Zealand is developing is cutting edge.

“I hope they get the market support.

“As a farmer and shareholder, I want them to be successful.”